


funny how nothing looks more different

by pettigrace



Series: sing it like a hummingbird [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe), Episode: s04e16 Hey World!, Episode: s08e04 Present Tense, Gen, I have no idea how to tag this lmao, Old Friends, Relationship Discussions, Spoilers, Supernatural Elements, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:08:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21559867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pettigrace/pseuds/pettigrace
Summary: Sara and Oliver catch up on each other's teams.
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak (Minor), Ray Palmer/Nora Darhk (Minor), Sara Lance & Mick Rory, Sara Lance & Oliver Queen, Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe (minor)
Series: sing it like a hummingbird [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757428
Comments: 11
Kudos: 201





	funny how nothing looks more different

**Author's Note:**

> This is some cracky random thing that was in no way meant to turn out like this? Basically, I had the random thought of "Oh God, imagine Oliver finding out his wife's ex is dating the daughter of the guy who killed his ex????" and now they carried on and had a talk like this.  
> Do I think this could actually happen? No, not at all! Still, it was quite some fun.
> 
> There's **spoilers for Arrow s7/8, Legends of Tomorrow s4 and The Flash s5**. I'm behind on the last few episodes, so not much I can say there.
> 
> The title is from Will Jay's "Homesick".
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“Your team has grown,“ Oliver says after a few moments of awkward silence, grabbing the bottle in front of him and downing a sip. “Since the last time I saw you, that is.”

They’re all tense, so Sara can’t fault him for trying to do some small talk. There was a time, ages ago, where Oliver excelled at it – when he was the young billionaire playboy and didn’t have any other troubles than how to charm his audience. Now, after everything (not just the island, the League, the heroism but everything they’re about to face _now_ , too), he seems… tired. She’s known that his exile has changed him just as much as her own has. They’ve both changed from outgoing, cheerful people to the closed-off ones they are now.

“Well, it’s been while,” Sara answers. She doesn’t pick up her glass – even if she’s good at putting away alcohol, she doesn’t want her mind clouded for whatever is coming up next. And Lord, she knows that Mick will keep refilling it as soon as she downed it. His attempts at getting her wasted, after all this time.

“Wouldn’t have been if you’d picked up our calls,” Oliver answers. It isn’t an accusation per se, especially not when the corner of his lip is curling up like this, but he’s right anyway. “You would have met Mar Novu then, too.”

Sara cocks an eyebrow. Granted, it probably would have been for the better to get a look at the dude who’s responsible for all this, but it’s not like they’d had leisure time to pass around. She tells him as much. “He sounds like an asshole, though,” she adds, looking around. She sees all the teams sitting around anxiously, not sure what to expect. There’s conversations going on, but she imagines that it’s old friends catching up, just as it is the case for her and Oliver.

Oliver gives a dry laughter. “You could say that,” he admits. “How did you make Constantine stick around?”

Now it is Sara’s turn to give a smile. She knows that Oliver never _actively_ tried to make him stick around – plus, there’s still a lot to their partnership that she still doesn’t know about (advantages of them both being the broody people that they are) – but it’s still good to know she achieved something that seemed out of reach for him. Granted, she doesn’t know what exactly _they_ did for that either, but it’s a fact that it _worked_. “It’s our natural charm,” she shrugs. “I mean, none of them wanted to stick around initially, right? Except Ray, of course.”

“Is that where you give me a crash course of your team members?”

“If you want.”

Oliver may be grimacing lightly, as if he doesn’t want one, but she can also see the faint interest in the way he tilts his head. She wishes that were something she only noticed about him when they were dating and not from her Oliver-obsessed years before, but at the same time she’s glad to see that parts of the old Oliver Queen are still there.

“Okay, so you know Ray and Nate obviously,” she starts, pointing into their direction. “Became best buds by now. Nate’s able to turn into steel and Ray’s suit can grow now, too—”

“I know that,” Oliver counts in, his voice somewhere between annoyed and amused. “It hasn’t been _that_ long. What happened to Amaya there?”

Sara pauses, trying to think of when he last saw her team. It’s a strange thought, but maybe the time travelling finally catches up on her. Who would be able to keep anything straight when you jump through history as much as she does? She waves off that thought and concentrates on his question. “Oh, that isn’t Amaya.”

Oliver frowns, shooting a look back at the person in question. “Doppelgänger?”

“Shapeshifter,” Sara shakes her head. “Took Amaya’s form after she left— just to mess with us, so Constantine took her powers. Made her stuck in the form, but now she can change at will again. Grew comfy like that, I guess.”

“So, what, she’s a metahuman?” Oliver wants to know. It’s no surprise that his mind jumped in that direction.

“Nope. Just a regular old shapeshifter,” she tells him. She wonders if he shouldn’t know by now that those are actually existent. “Anyway, Amaya left to get back to her time period. Left a real gape in the team.”

“And that’s why you got a whole bunch of new members?”

Sara smiles. True, there has been quite a growth recently, but none of them have been meant as a replace for their friend. Because there is no replacing Amaya Jiwe; Oliver knows that, too, seeing how he’s acquaintances with her grandchild. She looks at where Zari is looking at Charlie with wide eyes, still in awe about hearing what kind of people her brother has been hanging around with, and moves on to see said brother discuss whoever-knows-what with Gary.

“Not exactly,” she tells him. She points at Zari leisurely. “That’s a time-travel fuck-up of some kind, though Gideon’s still not sure just how exactly. There’s something about her that reads the wrong way, apparently, but we’re onto that. Tall, dark and handsome over there is her brother. They’re fun.”

Oliver snorts. “Of course, they are,” he declares. “You always have loads of fun, don’t you?”

Sara grins. “You know us too well.”

“You think that screw-up’s got to do with the crisis?” Oliver asks, his face growing a bit darker. She knows he’s still reaching for every bit of information he can get about it, especially seeing how it’s getting closer and closer. Barry has said something about a specific time, though he wouldn’t tell any of them anything more, and the fact that Novu transported all of them to the same place just like that only makes it worse.

Still, she doesn’t have to think about it for too long. Instead, she shakes her head. “No. There’s something about her… It feels genuine. I can’t really describe it,” she adds quickly. It wouldn’t do to stammer over _feelings_ when talking to Oliver. “I’d guess it’s got to do with Neron.”

“Neron is…?” He prompts.

“The reason we couldn’t help last year,” Sara explains. “Demon, old pal of—”

“Constantine.” Oliver finishes. That’s not too hard of a guess to make. “So, you have an influx on supernatural creatures? What did you _do_?”

“Why do you think it was us?”

He just stares at her.

“Okay, fine,” she answers, raising her hands in defense. Now she finally reaches for her glass and downs it. “We might have opened a portal to hell – well, several by now, but it’s all fine – when we put back our last big baddie. Another demon. Mallus. Big and ugly, was possessing Nora for pretty long. We fought him with a gigantic toy.”

Now, Oliver blinks at her, obviously struggling with some of the things she just told him. “You—what,” he gapes before shaking his head in the end. “Why am I even still surprised?”

Sara shrugs lightly. She’s long past this point, so she’s not even really sure _what_ sets him off like this. So instead, she goes on. “So, we freed Nora off him and now she’s dating Ray. Was almost as much of a slow burn as you and Felicity, I tell you.”

“She looks kind of familiar,” he voices as he takes in her appearance. Next to Mona, she looks almost as invisible, but the way she’s leaning into Ray makes it obvious who she is.

But, well, of course not _all_ details about that. Sara swallows. “Yeah, about that. That’s… Nora Darhk. Eleanor.”

She almost winces at how fast Oliver’s expression grows cold. She can’t fault him for that; of course, she can’t when it’s pretty much been her own reaction. She almost freezes as he turns back to her, giving her his best pissed off glare. “ _Damien Darhk’s daughter_?” He breathes. There’s hurt sipping into his voice, full of the memory of what Damien has done.

“She’s not bad!” She quickly says. “Okay, she kind of was, but that’s the past now,” she adds. “Between being raised by freaking Damien Darhk and being host of a demon, she developed pretty nicely.”

Oliver’s expression still doesn’t soften.

Sara suppresses a groan. Had she been as stubborn? Of course, she’s had to deal with Nora _and_ Damien, and having the murderer of your sister involved makes everything worse, so now that he’s out of the picture, Oliver shouldn’t be struggling so much. “She’s dating _Ray_. You think he’d fall for anyone evil?”

“ _Yes_?” He answers. And okay, that’s been a weak argument. Ray would have let the Fairy Godmother join them, too, if she sang any more.

“She helped us plenty,” Sara tries again. “And she’s part of a book club! With Mona! And—oh, Mona is a werewolf! Now, isn’t that more interesting?”

Oliver looks as overwhelmed as it’s possible for him. Maybe she shouldn’t have moved through them all so quickly. “A werewolf,” he repeats.

“Well, not exactly. Some Hawaiian demigod or something,” she explains. “But it’s pretty much a werewolf, yeah. We call her Wolfie.”

“You call her— Sure,” Oliver gives in. He looks every bit like a man who’s seen way too much lately. And not just blood and gore but new experiences, too.

“I think that’s about us,” she quickly closes. Oliver knows Mick, of course, and he’ll get to know about Ava eventually. Though she’ll probably skip the part of how she’s a clone; more for Ava’s sake than Oliver’s. She’s still sensible about that. “Who are your newbies? You’d think I remember those pretty faces.”

They, too, look quite familiar, but she can’t place how. A group of three, that’s just close enough to the rest of Oliver’s team to show a link to them, but is too far apart to speak of any real connection there. There’s a dark-haired man who can’t be much younger than her, leaning back and looking around with great interest in his eyes. A blonde young woman whose knee is pressing against that of the black guy next to her. They’re looking down as they talk, almost like they’re hiding their mouths during their discussion. There’s definitely something about the girl despite her beauty that nags at Sara’s thoughts.

Again, Oliver’s face doesn’t seem quite sure about what emotion to display. For a split second, she almost saw him smile. In the end, he looks quite serious again. “It’s a long story.”

“And mine wasn’t?” She prompts. “Come on, I deserve a round-up, too. Did you adopt some kids there?”

“No,” he says. “Well, John did. Or he _will_ , apparently—”

“Why does that sound like—”

“Time travel.” He nods. “Infused by Mar Novu. They showed up in the lair a few weeks back without having anything to do with that.”

Sara frowns, looking at them closer. She still can’t quite capture the two people who are huddled together there, but for a brief moment, the other guy’s eyes and hers meet. And there she recognizes them. “Wait— Is that _William_?”

Granted, she has only seen him a few times and each of them she couldn’t stop but be speechless about _Oliver having a son_ , but she’s pretty sure that it is him. A few years older, a few sharper lines to his face, but still the same curiosity written into his features. She even sees the looks he throws into Barry’s direction – who’s sitting with his arms wrapped around Iris tightly. No idea if he’s aware that Barry is the Flash, but she does remember the obsession that the boy had as a kid. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

Then, things click into place. “Connor Hawke?” She continues. Now that she knows what to look for, she remembers the Green Arrow of the future that they had met. She still hasn’t caught a good look at his face (this guy must be used to veiling himself because this is next level) but she is pretty sure that it must be him.

Oliver’s eyes widen, though she can’t tell which guess he is more surprised about. “You know Connor—”

“Yes, we met him. Spoilers right there, but anyway— he’s John’s _adopted_ kid?” She raises an eyebrow. “The Connor I know was JJ with a new name.”

“No,” Oliver rubs over his chin, “he and JJ are brothers and— well, long story. But you got things wrong.”

Sara blows her lips in response. “Nah, I didn’t. Time just isn’t fixed, so I guess it was _one_ option. Anyway, who’s the girl then?”

Again, something funny happens with Oliver’s face; something she can’t quite name. He settles with something between disappointment and doubt. It tells her that it should be obvious, but she guesses it must be once you could actually look at her properly.

Still… It’s on the tip of her tongue.

“She’s my daughter,” he admits quietly.

Sara gapes at him. “You’ll have a daughter?” She asks, already looking back at her. There’s still not much to see there, her face hidden away, but she almost imagines recognizing her then. Nothing to base it on, but as soon as he’s said it, she can see it.

“I _have_ daughter,” he corrects softly. “Felicity, she’s— She’s got her. A while back, but—"

“Oliver,” she interrupts, her voice going a bit higher. “That’s amazing!”

Oliver shushes her almost immediately, reaching for her hand over the table. “It’s— We kept it a secret, okay? So, she’ll be safe. The others wouldn’t even know about it if it weren’t for this— this whole thing.”

“You wanted to keep _this_ a secret from your team?”

“Not my team anymore if we left everything behind, don’t you think?” Oliver reasons. He’s got a point, granted; but seeing him here, among all these heroes, it feels so natural that for a split second she forgot he’s retreated into solitude initially. “But it’s out in the open— for them, at least. Everything’s pretty… difficult.”

“So… nobody knows about them being from the future either? Except for the usual suspects?” When Oliver shakes his head, she adds, “You should reconsider that. Because any second more and your son’s racing over to finally get the Flash autograph he’s wanted for ages, then.” If that truly is the boy who’s spent months living with Felicity, then he’ll quickly jump from owner-of-STAR-Labs-aka-home-of-the-Flash-hugging-Flash-reporter-number-one to the Flash pretty quickly. “Warn him, at least.”

Oliver frowns at that. “I can’t tell Barry that my kids from the future are here.”

“Why not?”

“Because,” Oliver starts, narrowing his voice a bit more, “ _his_ daughter had come from the future until she got erased from existence right in front of him.”

“What?” Sara gapes. “How the fuck did I miss _that_?”

There’s a sigh escaping from Oliver’s lips as he picks up his bottle again. “Guess there hasn’t been much time for gossip between the demons and werewolves and time misplacements.”

“Yeah,” she nods. They have been quite busy, but this isn’t news you keep silent about. Of course, she’s never been that close to Barry; especially not compared to Oliver, who’s practically a big brother to the guy, but it gives way for concern. Shouldn’t Gideon have known about something like this? Sara will have to talk to her about that… “So, you need to be careful that… it won’t be the same?”

“I guess it’s pretty different. Novu and all,” Oliver voices. “But I’d be lying if I said I don’t—”

“Yeah. I can imagine,” she agrees. “ _Fuck_.” She looks through the crowd and finds Mick standing close to Cisco of all people. Still, she knows that he’s always attentive in groups like this, even if he won’t show it, so their eyes meet quite soon. She doesn’t need to gesture at all for him to dive away and produce a bottle of vodka from somewhere.

Oliver sighs again. “You can say that again.”

Mick arrives after a few more seconds, putting the bottle down with a loud sound. “You okay, birdie?” He wants to know with a grunt. As much concern as she’ll get from him.

“Just worried, is all,” she waves him off. “You having a chat with Cisco?”

“Checking in on Lisa,” he affirms quickly. There’s a small grimace passing over his face, as it always happens when a conversation takes the direction of Leonard. She still doesn’t know how he coped with Leo being on board last year.

Sara doesn’t press any further but lets him go again. Instead, she opens the bottle and takes a sip straight from it before she offers it to Oliver. She watches as he doesn’t stop at one mouthful but takes three.

When he puts the bottle down, there’s a pained expression on his face. Still, the words speak differently. “I’ve got to say,” he starts, “if anyone could have tamed that crazy team, it would have been you. You’re easily the most dangerous group of us all.”

Sara frowns. “What? No, we aren’t.” They’re a bunch of misfits. Their whole motto is about _screwing up_ , whereas the others are all talented and determined. The legends get distracted as soon as there’s talks about dinner, for fuck’s sake!

“Sara,” Oliver drawls. “You are an assassin. You have a ruthless guy with a flamethrower. Magicians. A shapeshifter. A guy who can turn into steel and one who can shrink and grow at will. And a _werewolf_.”

“When you put it like that…” She starts. Yes, maybe they’ve got a crazy accumulation of beings and talents. It still doesn’t mean one should rely on them.

“Also, I heard something about a dragon?”

At that, Sara can’t hold back a laughter. Of course, rumours like that spread around like a wildfire. But at the same time, she can’t argue with him; looking at the whole group – not just the Legends, but Team Arrow, Flash and Kara’s group, too – she almost feels like they can take on whatever threat is waiting there.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Please leave a comment!**  
>  If you liked this, come check out my [tumblr](http://joanthangroff.tumblr.com) or talk to me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/Ll4MDUNBAR).


End file.
